INDIE JOURNEY : Brenda Zofrea

My Publishing Experience

I took a course at Montclair State College on publishing which really helped me understand the traditional publishing process, including how to write a query letter, etc.

After the course, I sent out 30-40 query letters and rec'd. rejections from all of them. Then finally, I was offered a contract from a fairly big publisher but the royalties they wanted to pay me were not fair and they wanted rights to my character (also without paying me fairly for it). I had to hire a literary attorney to figure all of this out.

Then, while appearing as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show as one of five people chosen (out of over 5000)to be part of her last book club show, I was advised by one of the other guests to self-publish my book. As it turns out, the other guest was VP of Marketing for one of the largest book distributors in the country (maybe even the world/they're huge).

So I followed her advice and self-published.

What has worked best for me? My book sells much better if it's recommended by someone else vs. me trying to sell it. People just see me as someone selling a book and they don't really give my message and passion for the topic a chance (unless I'm selling it as part of my Parent/Teacher Workshops). Now that my book is the foundation for an entire school district's literacy and child safety program, it's been a lot easier to share my message.

Traditional publishing provides you with the necessary distribution channels in order to get into the major bookstores and hopeful they will also have an aggressive and well-funded promotional program for your book (not always the case).

The beauty of self-publishing is that you can self-publish while simultaneously trying to get it traditionally published...you own the rights so you're not limited in what you can do with your book.